Yes, the heat of a car sitting out most times of the year in California gets an MRE in some cases over 120F for long periods of time. The end of life of the MRE is greatly manifold then, so you would need to cycle through them a lot.

Search out there, there is a graphical table out on the net which shows this.

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Yeah, I was aware of the heat vs age on MRE's, which is why I am posing the question.

But, those food bars do sound like a good idea. They sound more tolerant to temp changes. I basically want to just have my bag in the cars and not deal with it, except for maybe doing a periodic inventory after a few months or so.

Maybe another thing I will look for at the next show. If I go.

__________________
- I don't believe in Safety First. Never have and never will.

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That chart may very well be right. A coworker was in the Middle East and they had a load of MREs in a non-air-conditioned sea container. They ate a meal and everyone got food poisioning, yet the MREs were only about a month old.

They are made to hold up to temperature extremes for 5 years (rated -40 to 300 deg F or -22 to 149 deg depending on the brand). The Datrex, Mainstay & Mayday ones taste decent. The ones that Westmarine sells suck (plus they gouge you on price). The 3600 calorie bars go for $5.50 to $3.95 from various vendors online, Westmarine jacks you for $10 for a single 2400 cal bar.

The Datrex tastes like Coconut cookies, the Mainstay tastes like Lemon cookies, the Mayday like Apple/Cinnamon.

New Millenium also makes a 5yr shelf life ration bar in 400 cal sizes that come in different flavors (perfect for picky people/kids) they have orange, lemon, cherry, apricot, tropical fruit, blueberry, raspberry and vanilla.

That chart may very well be right. A coworker was in the Middle East and they had a load of MREs in a non-air-conditioned sea container. They ate a meal and everyone got food poisioning, yet the MREs were only about a month old.

Hmmm, i wonder if they ran into a bad lot of food? I know some of the milk shakes (and a few other drink packets) had e-coli contamination associated with certain batches.

Other than that, those MRE's should be just like eating canned food meaning as long as the packet isn't busted/damaged to allow contamination, the heat may have destroyed some amount of the nutrients but it shouldn't make you sick.

I don't even keep MRE's for one major reason. If you have ever had to eat them for an extended period of time, say more than 4 or 5 days on an exclusive basis you would realize the tremendous amount of water required to even pass them out the other side. I don't want to waste my water trying to digest MRE's. I'm telling you bowell movements are downright painful. You basically give birth to a fist size turd that scrapes you all the way out. Upside is you really don't even need toilet paper.

I don't even keep MRE's for one major reason. If you have ever had to eat them for an extended period of time, say more than 4 or 5 days on an exclusive basis you would realize the tremendous amount of water required to even pass them out the other side. I don't want to waste my water trying to digest MRE's. I'm telling you bowell movements are downright painful. You basically give birth to a fist size turd that scrapes you all the way out. Upside is you really don't even need toilet paper.

Hey now, this is SF, fist size turds are nothing for us.

__________________
- I don't believe in Safety First. Never have and never will.

- I believe in Safety ALWAYS. Bad things happen if you only do it first...

Heat and cold affect an MRE so I only keep them in the house where the temp is controlled.

In the GHB in the vehicles I have life boat rations that are not adversely affected by the temp swings. I also keep something like six king size Payday bars. Lots of protein and carbs.

Same here almost. I have Mayday 3600 Calorie Food Bars in my GHBs, and BOBs. They say they have a 5 year shelf life, but I'd be surprised if they didn't last longer.

I also have lots of Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Peanut Granola Bars from Costco that taste great, give good energy, and last a long time. My whole family, even the kids, loves them and we take some of them everywhere, vacations, camping, hiking, school snacks, etc.

I can't believe you guys keep stuff like this in your car and don't eat them! I'd be all over those !

I probably eat one of those granola bars every other day as a snack or meal on the go. he MayDay food rations however are too expensive to eat on a regular basis, and were only bought for emergencies. If you eat or use up what's in your GHB/BOB, when the time comes for you to actually need it, you'll be SOL.

Same here almost. I have Mayday 3600 Calorie Food Bars in my GHBs, and BOBs. They say they have a 5 year shelf life, but I'd be surprised if they didn't last longer.

The food bars do actually go bad. We cleaned out a earthquake kit about 6 months ago. There were some of the 3600 calorie bars in it with an expiration of about 1994 or 1995. They smelled pretty bad and tasted horribly rancid. The kind of rancid where you have to find something to wipe it off of your tongue because spitting it out isn't good enough.

The food bars do actually go bad. We cleaned out a earthquake kit about 6 months ago. There were some of the 3600 calorie bars in it with an expiration of about 1994 or 1995. They smelled pretty bad and tasted horribly rancid. The kind of rancid where you have to find something to wipe it off of your tongue because spitting it out isn't good enough.

These bars were stored in a climate controlled office.

What I'm curious about is at what point does that happen? 18 or 19 years is a long time. Do they last 7, 10 or even 15 years? Earlier today I tried googling it and found nothing conclusive abotu a definite expiration date so I emailed MayDay and asked. If/when they write back I'll post their reply.

What I'm curious about is at what point does that happen? 18 or 19 years is a long time. Do they last 7, 10 or even 15 years? Earlier today I tried googling it and found nothing conclusive abotu a definite expiration date so I emailed MayDay and asked. If/when they write back I'll post their reply.

I have some right now that are at or just past their expiration date. I'll be moving this summer so when I start going through things and locate them I plan on trying one each year for a few years to see if I can get an expiration idea. If I get time to go through the pantry sooner I'll post my observations.

I wouldn't eat an MRE, not even in an emergency. UGH. I had enough of those nasty things as an active duty Marine.

Semper Fi. I ate my share aswell. I sell these all over the USA. Lots of people like them. Regardless of opinions on taste, if the only thing a person had in hand from swimming to shore from a flipped canoe was an MRE, then you have a good start toward survival... a hot 1,200 calorie meal and matches to make a signal fire and be warm.

I don't even keep MRE's for one major reason. If you have ever had to eat them for an extended period of time, say more than 4 or 5 days on an exclusive basis you would realize the tremendous amount of water required to even pass them out the other side. I don't want to waste my water trying to digest MRE's. I'm telling you bowell movements are downright painful. You basically give birth to a fist size turd that scrapes you all the way out. Upside is you really don't even need toilet paper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiferronald

Wow. I was getting hungry till the last post. Now i am thirsty.

HAHAHAHA!!!

__________________You will never, in your life, have a chance like this again.
If I were you, I would not pass this up. I would not let this go by...this is rare.
Come on...what harm??

How long do you think MREs are in the Middle East before they're eaten? And I guarantee they were in an uncontrollable climate. MREs will survive with the cockroaches - have faith in that. I'm gonna blame weak stomachs. Sorry.

They are made to hold up to temperature extremes for 5 years (rated -40 to 300 deg F or -22 to 149 deg depending on the brand). The Datrex, Mainstay & Mayday ones taste decent. The ones that Westmarine sells suck (plus they gouge you on price). The 3600 calorie bars go for $5.50 to $3.95 from various vendors online, Westmarine jacks you for $10 for a single 2400 cal bar.

The Datrex tastes like Coconut cookies, the Mainstay tastes like Lemon cookies, the Mayday like Apple/Cinnamon.

New Millenium also makes a 5yr shelf life ration bar in 400 cal sizes that come in different flavors (perfect for picky people/kids) they have orange, lemon, cherry, apricot, tropical fruit, blueberry, raspberry and vanilla.

I've had the New Millenium bars, not bad. Not great, but not bad. If I was hungry they would be great I'm sure. I keep several in my GHB.

Light weight, high calorie, long shelf life, low susceptibility to heat are what makes for good qualities in food bars. Decent taste always helps, but if one is hungry, anything edible will taste good.

Think about this, people in North Korea eat the bark off trees. How f***ing hungry would YOU have to be to eat that?

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